it always depends on each persons own expectations/standards, what is considered "necessary/cheap/expensive/etc etc".
some above mentioned 1000.- euros enough for a comfy life.
i don't consider my small family as living any rich Man's life here, we are Mommy, Daddy, almost 12 years old Son and a almost 3 years old Babgygirl in the household(yeah, both have their birthdays on the same day, Nov18th, lol), but with just 1.000.- Euros per month we would def starve, and that without bringing the lil extra costs for children/schools/their clothes/their Meds etc into the count.
i guess most singles here in the area(i am on the East) would be fine with 1.000.- euros per month, i could have lived for a while here in PC with that in my younger years when i arrived, it would by far not work out todays, as things like maintaining a Truck, a premium Medic insurance and the simple $600.- monthly rent of our place would alone exceed those 1.000.- euros of a monthly budget. maybe because some things change with the years. even if i would be single again tomorrow, such budget of 1000.- euros would mean that i would need to cut down on the average living quality a lot/very significantly.
as for the $5.000.- dollar monthly budget, here we talk a level where a comfy life can be had for a small family, with the kittens in a good school, eating what each prefers, living in a nice comfy appartment or house.
some still to consider well significant extra costs are travels, if such Expat wants to visit the family back home in Europe once or twice a year, such visits take up a good amount of monthly money to be safed to be able to spend it once or twice a year.
a single with the mentioned 5K's can of course easily live Kingstyle, not in unlimited luxury, but thats good for a very nice home to rent, a nice car to drive, eat home and out what ever the tastebutts tell, as long as not some sorrily often seen lil bad habbits come into the game to eat more than the high monthly budget, when clubbing becomes a drug with its often involved pills and snows, or when people start Gambling on the high scale.
i would say for a single comfy live starts with 2 grand monthly, that includes then to have the usual backups like a good medic insurance etc paid within the budget.
for a small family with 1 or 2 children, as here a bigger appartment/house has to be rented, i would say with 3-3.5 grand it starts to be possible to live it comfy without worries about bad times and all needed backups like insurances etc paid within the budget.
MIke